35. In Memoriam - Les Brown (27 November 1936 – 28 January 2021)

Les Brown (pictured above, on the occasion, aged about 11, of scoring his first Century) was a talented and committed all round sportsman who, aside for playing Cricket for Oxted CC, won the FA Amateur Cup with Wimbledon FC in 1963 .

Before Wimbledon, (who were an Amateur team at the time, Les had previously played for Dulwich Hamlet where he gained England caps and was a part of the Great Britain team that went to the Rome Olympics in 1960.

His talent for sport continued in his family as his daughter, Karen went on to play hockey for Great Britain (Karen was awarded the MBE for services to England Hockey in 2019).

A wider tribute to Les and his footballing career is to be found on the AFC Wimbledon Website https://www.afcwimbledon.co.uk/news/2021/february/tribute-to-a-dons-legend-who-gained-olympic-honours/

OLCC Umpire Nigel Turk writes of Les Brown the Cricketer (pictured here at age 10 in 1946, having scored his first Century !) "When I umpired other games in the early 80s, and was asked which Club I usually stood for, the conversation would often proceed:

Me 'Oh, only a small club, doubt if you'd know it.'
Him 'But which one?'
Me 'Place in Surrey called Oxted.'
Him 'All I know about Oxted is a man called Brown.' (Not always entirely said with affection !)

Les was extremely competitive, but hard to get on with on occasion. I almost left Oxted in mid-season, 1980, after being chastised for not intervening and disallowing a catch on the far boundary; 'Even the cars going round the ground could see the [i]xxxxxx caught it outside the line!!!' (He didn't!)
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But, though some opponents were less than complimentary about Les as an opponent , he was the heart and soul of the First Eleven, scored plenty of runs for them and brought Malcolm Gates to the Club - he had also been a more than reasonable local League footballer himself.

Les had one year captaining the First XI, in which he lost himself in his own concerns, and rather forgot about it being a team game. He used to walk up and down, hands behind his back, chin on his chest and deep in thought - or recriminations! - as when the Nat West Bank side were four or five short at the time of the toss at Master Park, including the captain. Someone told him that it was permissible to toss with one of the other players in such circumstances, and I, trying to be helpful, said:

'Yes, Les, the Laws permit the toss to be made by someone else, if the captain is late arriving.' to be rewarded with a hostile:

'You Shut Up!! You do the xxxxx Umpiring, and I'll do the xxxxxx skippering.'

George Jarrett recalls retrieving umpteen balls from the Gardens of Wheeler Avenue in a match that was not going well, but which Les was Umpiring. Having retried one too many balls and feeling fed up, not to say feeling like a Burglar casing local houses, George lobbed the ball blindly over the Hedge back onto the Cricket Pitch and knocked Les out - perhaps the origin of "on me 'ead" ?